After missing four months with a devastating injury, Brodeur
made 24 saves and All-Star Zach Parise and Travis Zajac each
recorded a goal and two assists as the Devils blanked the
Colorado Avalanche, 4-0, on Thursday.

"I didn't want to disappoint anybody," Brodeur said. "Everybody
was excited, I was excited to come back. I know all my friends
and family are excited. I just wanted to do well. It was a lot
of pressure for just one game."

Captain Jamie Langenbrunner scored a goal and set up another,
Patrik Elias also tallied and defenseman Paul Martin notched two
assists for New Jersey, which went 32-17-1 without Brodeur.

A four-time Vezina Trophy winner, Brodeur turned aside five
shots in the first period, 12 in the second and seven in the
third to register his third shutout of the season and 99th
career - leaving him four behind Terry Sawchuk's all-time mark
of 103.

"I was really anxious all day, more nervous than I thought I'd
be," Brodeur said. "I had butterflies. I don't feel them too
often. I thought I was going to be able to go out there and
just be my old self and not think about much. But it was a big
deal for me to get back in the net.

"It was kind of a nice game to play because I was able to get my
feet wet in the first period, a couple of saves in the second
and we shut them down pretty well in the third."

Brodeur also recorded his 545th career win, pulling within six
of Patrick Roy's all-time record.

"This was just a good game for me to come back on the schedule,"
Brodeur said. "As far as chasing that record, every day I'm
going to have to deal with it. I'm excited about it, no doubt
about it, but what's in my mind right now is getting back in top
form for the playoffs. Winning is what we're in business to do.
Hopefully, we'll get it done, put it past us and move on."

Andrew Raycroft stopped 28 shots for Colorado, which has lost
three in a row.

"You knew he was going to come with a lot of energy and a lot of
hype and his team's going to play well around him," Avalanche
defenseman Adam Foote said. "I don't think we gave him a good
test, that's for sure. I don't think we made it too difficult
for him."

The 36-year-old Brodeur was not tested often but appeared to
shake off whatever rust built up from not playing since a 6-1
win over the Atlanta Thrashers on November 1, when he suffered a
tear in his distal biceps muscle in his left arm.

"The elbow was great," Brodeur said. "I didn't feel anything
all game long. I tested it a couple of times, especially
getting up and moving across (the net), anchoring myself on the
post. I didn't get many shots on the glove side. Even playing
the puck, I didn't feel anything."

Although Brodeur also received plenty of help on the offensive
end, most of the booming cheers were directed toward him.

"I heard it," Brodeur said. "It was fun. I think the fans were
great. I expected that, too. I've always had a good
relationship with the fans. There were a lot of people out
there and they were all into it."

Langenbrunner opened the scoring at 4:38 of the opening period,
accepting a pass from Zajac and firing a hard slap shot from the
right faceoff circle that sailed by Raycroft.

In the following session, Elias doubled the lead by lifting a
wrist shot into the vacant net while stationed on the doorstep
at 8:43.

"We have to stay in the frame of mind where the only thing that
matters is how we perform in the next game," Colorado coach Tony
Granato said. "Tonight's a tough loss to swallow. We have to
go back and figure a way how to be a better team on Saturday."

Parise netted his team-leading 36th goal of the season, skating
in toward the low slot and using a nifty deke before beating
Raycroft at 8:06 of the third.

"I think tonight we did a better job of limiting their scoring
chances," Parise said. "We were giving up too many shots, but
we buckled down tonight and did a lot better."

Zajac secured the victory with a wrister with 3:13 remaining in
the contest.

"We wanted to come out with a good effort and help Marty out and
make it easy on him," Zajac said. "Tonight, he made some big
saves for us. The whole crowd was cheering every save he made.
That was fun to be a part of."

The Devils, who suffered a 4-0 blanking to the lowly New York
Islanders on Saturday, improved to 6-1-0 in games after being
shut out.